• 18:03
  • Friday ,17 October 2014
العربية

Ignorance and awareness

Dr. Ahmed Al-Khamisi

Article Of The Day

00:10

Friday ,17 October 2014

Ignorance and awareness
In an interview with Al-Ahram newspaper on October 10, Egyptian actor Yehia Fakharani said that art may be Haram or Halal according ot the aim of it like a knife that cut and kill. I wonder how come a great actor like him who has been working for 30 years can’t judge art except through the religious concepts of Halal and Haram which can be easily manipulated by the fanatics who may prohibit it completely. His ignorance was exposed when he talked about Mubarak saying that his great history of struggle! Should actors have complete awareness of his society and be able to contribute to it? Can an actor be a great one when he adopts such ideas? I believe yes, but such actor will never achieve a great position among the great people in history like Najib Rihani, who cared for the poor, and Charlie Chaplin, who considered acting an intellectual, philosophical, political and humanitarian act that can confront dictatorships and wars. He, furthermore, refused the establishment of the State of Israel. Thanks to the democracy in the West, many actors came with enough awareness like Jane Fonda who opposed the Vietnam War as well as the war on Iraq. During the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in 2006, actor George Clooney said that American Administration will be cursed along history. During the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza, a hundred actors signed a message that describes this war as a "war of genocide and massacre." On the other hand, many actors supported their governments and political leaders, such as actress Jennifer Lopez, who launched the campaign called "Women for Obama" to mobilize the women's vote for Obama! However, in our country few actors had such awareness like Sharihan who said during the January 25 revolution that she is willing to give her blood for the revolution. She refused to see President Mubarak's "heroic history"! Unfortunately, awareness in Egypt is linked to the regime. An artist should have a good level of knowledge and awareness in order to avoid distorting the truth and history that makes Mubarak with heroic history!